Will Rockstar delay GTA 6 out of 2025 and into 2026? It’s one of the burning questions gamers, publishers, and analysts have of what to expect from next year. In truth, only Rockstar can answer that question, but one former developer at the studio has suggested such a decision could come in pretty hot.
Former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, who IGN has reported on before after he shed light on Rockstar’s long lost game Agent’s development troubles, tweeted to provide some context on any speculation about the fate of GTA 6’s current fall 2025 release window on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
While stressing he has no inside information, Vermeij pointed to Rockstar’s decision to delay GTA 4 from 2007 into 2008, a decision, he said, that was made just four months before the original release date. GTA 4 originally had an October 2007 release date, but the delay was announced in August 2007, just two months beforehand. According to Vermeij, the decision to delay will have been made around June.
And so, applying that logic to GTA 6, a decision on whether to delay the game could be made around May 2025, around four months before its fall 2025 release window, if September 2025 is indeed the targeted release month. If that’s true, then we won’t know if the game is delayed or not for at least half a year.
“The decision to delay GTA 4 was made four months or so before the original release date,” Vermeij said. “Any further and it's hard to make the call. Rockstar is probably not in a position to determine whether they will hit 2025 until May-ish.”
Vermeij added that Rockstar will be mindful of GTA 6’s impact and its potential to make billions of dollars for years to come, potentially even over a decade. And so, the studio won’t rush the game out to hit a release date.
“GTA 6 will sell for 10 plus years and there is no competition to worry about,” Vermeij said. “They are not going to release the game until they're 100% happy with it. No matter what it said in the trailer.”
Rockstar Games officially revealed GTA 6 last December, with the first official trailer becoming the most-viewed video game reveal on YouTube within 24 hours. Set in modern-day Leonida, a fictionalized version of Florida, GTA 6 sees players control Lucia and an unnamed male that some fans speculate is named Jason.
Questions have swirled around GTA 6's release date ever since the initial reveal, with fans going feral over details like website updates. Internal conflicts over Rockstar's return to office policy has led to questions over whether GTA 6 will ultimately be delayed into 2026. However, as of right now, it looks like parent company Take-Two and Rockstar are set on getting it out by its intended release window.
In May, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told IGN: "We do feel highly confident that we'll deliver [GTA 6] in fall of 2025.”
For more on GTA 6, check out how musical artists Schoolboy Q and T-Pain are involved, as well as our roundup recapping everything we so know far about the next entry in Rockstars' beloved franchise. Additionally, check out our analysis piece on how GTA 6 could be one of the most important video games ever released.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
